It is underpowered. You could make it 1G and then it would be slightly overpowered at common, or slightly underpowered at uncommon. You could also make it 4/1 or 3/2—mostly I just wanted it vanilla and with power higher than toughness.

The cacti-folk could be defined through an ability like: "Whenever this is dealt damage, this deals that much damage to the source's controller."

While it could retaliate to the creature that dealt damage to it, I think that would be function almost the same as deathtouch under most situations and as not meaningful as a separate effect.

While it may feel weird that a cacti's prickly needles would deal damage to a player instead of a creature, I think it's the same as a vampire with lifelink that gains life for the controller rather than itself. It's weird if you think about it, but the mind can accept it. A cacti dealing needle damaging a player should be acceptable in the same way, and it would be interesting strategically.

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We met as competitors and collaborators in the second Great Designer Search. After the contest was over, we decided we still had things to say about designing Magic: the Gathering. So we started a blog.